Recognizing the vital role of booksellers in a thriving literary community, PEN Center USA has created an affordable annual membership for any person able to prove current employment through a bookstore, distributor, or publishing house. While the rewards of PEN Center USA membership start with the knowledge that you are helping to free imprisoned writers around the world and to defend the First Amendment, you will also receive exclusive benefits and privileges within the literary community. Bookseller members of PEN Center USA can:
 

1.     Subscribe to electric PEN (ePEN), PEN Center USA’s bi-weekly online newsletter. ePEN provides up-to-the minute information on all PEN Center USA events, programs, readings, lectures and publishing news. All PEN Center USA members may submit announcements of their latest publication credits, workshops, readings or other news for publication in ePEN’s “Membership” section.

2.     Receive discounts on classes at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Members receive a 10% discount on any Writers’ Program courses, with the exception of their two Master classes and their studio courses offered in February.

3.     Receive discounts on advertised workshops and events, including PEN Center USA’s largest benefit, the annual Literary Awards Festival, for which members receive a 50% discount on tickets.

4.     Attend forums on current social, political and economic issues at the Hammer Museum, the Autry National Center and other major cultural institutions.

5.     Attend large-scale events such as the Los Angeles Festival of Books, the Silver Lake Jubilee, Lummis Day, Forbidden Fruit: A Celebration of Banned Books and the Festival of California Poets.

6.     Enjoy priority access to exclusive workshops and member events held at the PEN Center USA office in Beverly Hills.

7.     Enjoy preferred seating at select PEN Center USA events.

8.     Participate in PEN Center USA’s Freedom to Write network. Join our Freedom to Write Committee and help free imprisoned writers throughout the world via petitions and letter-writing campaigns. By signing up for the Rapid Action Network (RAN), you can receive regular alerts about writers who have been arrested or threatened because of their work. You also have the opportunity to add your name to online petitions to support a cause.